Welcome back, everybody. Today we’re going to go over two of the hottest cards in Vintage right now and likely for a long time to come.
Gifts Ungiven
Gifts Ungiven is without a doubt the single most poorly played card I have ever seen. There have been many, many arguments presented about how this card is so versatile on TheManaDrain and Star City’s forums both, however what it should always come down to is this:
“Will all of the possible piles result in my winning or my opponent being unable to win?”
Unless you’ve already cast every bomb in your deck, the answer should be a hearty yes. If you find yourself resolving Gifts Ungiven and getting mediocre card advantage spells with it, there’s something seriously wrong with the gamestate you’re trying to repair. Usually mana base issues are of paramount concern in this fashion, since getting Recoup and Yawgmoth’s Will is pretty ineffective when you can’t produce Red or Black.
So what do you usually get? Analyze the game state and find the bombs that are most crushing to your opponent. For example, in the Short Bus Severance Belcher mirror, I would commonly grab these cards: Ancestral Recall, Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth’s Will, Tinker
This is a fairly easy pile to explain. They obviously can’t give me Yawgmoth’s Will if I have Black mana, which leaves them with three options, none of them good. The best thing they can usually do for themselves is give me Tolarian Academy and Ancestral Recall. The result of this was usually my tapping Academy for several Blue and drawing between 6-12 cards before passing the turn. By then I would have a tutor or the Recoup and be able to go off with Yawgmoth’s Will with about a million counters for backup.
I should also point out here that Tinker is an enormous threat, no matter what you’re holding. Consider this a bonus section. If your Tinker has nothing to grab but Darksteel Colossus, it’s not a very powerful Tinker. Casting Spiketail Drake with that mana would be more relevant most of the time, since Tinker/Colossus only goes the distance when you’ve already won, or you’re playing against unprepared fish. It reminds me very much of Morphling in that regard. However, if you have some more varied and efficient threats, like Mindslaver, Sundering Titan, Pentavus, or even Goblin Charbelcher from time to time, Tinker becomes much more powerful, and actually does the game winning it’s intended to do when it resolves.
Should you be in the position where your Black or Red mana are hindered so much that the above pile isn’t attractive to you, you can also try this pile, which usually results in a lot of ugly things happening very rapidly: Ancestral Recall, Tolarian Academy, Fact or Fiction, Thirst for Knowledge
Feel free to swap out Mana Severance for one of these if you’re running it, since it will make all of the above better, including Tolarian Academy. The result of this stack is that you’re going to be drawing a bunch of cards, since if Gifts Ungiven resolved, they are out of countermagic and the coast is clear to start swinging with the big spells. A stack like the above is far more effective than a stack like:
Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Impulse,
which is something I’ve been seeing a lot of people do since Randy Buehler insisted on putting Impulse in his build of Gifts.
Mana Drain
This has been talked to death, but still very few people really understand how this card works. If you think it’s purely a counter with a bonus, you are wrong. If you think it’s purely acceleration with the countering effect as a bonus, you are still wrong. Maximizing Mana Drain is crucial to a solid control mirror, and you’ll see the better players getting a lot more from their Mana Drains than the average player.
A lot of the jibber jabber on TheManaDrain has resulted in people thinking as soon as they can Mana Drain something and turn it in to a spell, they should throw the Drain on the table and suck up any spell, including the worthless ones. This is a really good way to get destroyed when the better player allows Drain to resolve, and then counters what you Drain in to, or suitably answers it (like the Tinker for Colossus above) leaving you without a counter, mana acceleration, or a good card.
There isn’t much I can say on the topic that hasn’t been said before, but I just really want to emphasize for all of you reading this right now, learn some patience with Mana Drain. Remember it has more than one use. You want to reach a happy medium of using it to fuel your big spells and defending your big spells, and unless you can do both, you’re going to end up short on cards very quickly and realize your opponent is going to locate their Yawgmoth’s Will shortly.
Fact or Fiction (and the revenge of Gifts)
Something I haven’t seen covered much at all recently is how to split Fact or Fiction piles and Gifts Ungiven stacks. Everybody is too focused on what they’re doing to put much thought in to their opponent.
With Fact or Fiction, your goal is pretty clear: make your opponent take the weaker of two stacks. This can be done in a variety of different ways, but since it’s so dynamic, I can only really give you guidelines and not hard facts.
1) Analyze your opponent’s mana. A shortage of mana may indicate that they want additional lands, and as such a pile that looks weaker could be considerably stronger. Being screwed off a color indicates that spells normally very high on the priority list like Goblin Welder, Demonic Tutor, or Mind Twist are no longer worth getting just yet.
2) Analyze your own hand. This is extremely crucial. Oftentimes, a spell as large as Fact or Fiction is cast on their own turn to keep it safe from Mana Drain, and it’s fairly common that you can untap and be ready to answer the only relevant thing they got from Fact. In this scenario, it wouldn’t be a poor decision to give your opponent Tinker and two lands off of a two-land, two-spell, and Tinker Fact or Fiction pile.
3) Gauge opponent reaction. This can be very dangerous if you haven’t been doing this for a while, since many of the better opponents are capable of faking things like this well enough to trick the newcomers. This is your chance to use those poker skills that every Magic player seems to think they have.
Splitting Gifts Ungiven piles is very similar, however it’s considerably more difficult, since usually your opponent will know how to do the above if they’re still playing a Gifts deck. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
1) Tolarian Academy is ridiculous. If you can possibly avoid it, do not let them have this card. You will lose a full turn sooner in most circumstances.
2) Recoup is really bad, but it’s even worse when it’s in the graveyard. If your opponent is playing with no Tinker targets except Colossus, let them take the Tinker and put the Yawgmoth’s Will and the Recoup in the bin. With any luck you can mise a solution to the Colossus before they ramp high enough to make use of a seven-mana Yawgmoth’s Will.
Closing Sentiments (and tomorrow’s article)
Many readers will notice that this article directly contradicts a lot of the things that Team Meandeck has stated publicly both on StarCity and TMD. I just want to say that it’s nothing personal guys, this isn’t an attack on you, I just think you’re doing things wrong.
Up tomorrow: MegaMan, Kowal’s Top Sekret Mono-Blue (by popular request!)
Stay tuned till next time.
Ben Kowal
Vintage Punk